First
things first, the pharaohs are dead; this article highlights a few unique
elements of the modern Egyptian culture. More specifically, the
cultural elements shared among the citizens of Greater Cairo.
- Black humor is the most popular form of communication among Egyptians, laughing out loud at the biggest of their problems. Big fan + General practitioner :)
- Football AKA Soccer is the most popular sport in Egypt, and the only life interest that beats the popularity of black humor. I love football in general, however, I dislike how overexcited Egyptians are about the Egyptian League… especially that it is not even worth watching.
- People living in Cairo don’t visit the pyramids every day, they don’t kneel before the Sphinx, they don’t ride camels, and rarely even realize the existence of these stuff. I only realize the existence/importance of them while conversing with foreigners.
- Egyptians wear jeans and shirts, work for corporates, have internet connections, and are influenced by consumerism, globalization, and inequality of wealth distribution… just like the rest of the world. Guilty!
- A 90% Muslims, 10% Christians (mostly Orthodox) population, your religion gets officially documented when you’re born based on your family’s religion. Dislike.
- Government’s policy toward religious freedom: your religion is all over your official documents, from birth certificate to national ID, only the two religions stated above are recognizable, and you’d better stick to your family’s religion, or you’d be compromising “National Unity”, “National Security”, and a bunch of other Nationalistic notions. Practically, you’re free
to change your own religion, and the government is under no obligation to
acknowledge that change.
- A huge amount of males in the population are named “Mohamed” and “Ahmed”, usually called by their last names (Family’s or Father’s name), as both names have apparently lost their significance over the years. Creativity Level: Zero.
- The most popular footballer in Egypt 2011 was “Mohamed Mohamed Mohamed Aboutrika”, commonly referred to as “Aboutrika”. He’s a good player.
- Low cost of education; as public schools and universities are almost free of charge, however, you can’t complain much about the quality of “Free Education” within a developing country. A place where “education” makes no sense.
- An illiteracy rate of 23.7% as declared by the state’s statistics agency, which means a real rate anywhere around 30%. When some developed countries have a reached a computer literacy rate of 100%.
- A poverty rate of 27.8% as declared by the same agency in 2015, you can only imagine the real figure nowadays. As some of the regime supporters say, “We’re better than Iraq & Syria” :)
- A general lack of belief in science, lack of scientific means to gather insights, on both the public and private sides of the country. It has to do with multiple social, economic, political problems in Egypt, and can only be resolved by the regime’s men… A top-down kind of issue.
- Prostitution, drugs, weapons, and antiques trafficking are among the evergreen industries in Egypt. A beautiful place for some investors!
- The black market is much greater in size and impact than the “white market”. Industries like food, clothing, entertainment… are highly integrated within the black market.
- If illegal products and services would all disappear one day, it’s highly likely that Egypt would face a severe economic crisis. Agreed!
- All economic indicators are inaccurate, and often irrelevant, as the Egyptian economy consists of three main funnels, 1- Black market’s economy, which includes every illegal activity, 2- The Army’s economy, as the Egyptian Army is a main player in fields like FMCG, Oil and Gas, Construction Services… with “Classified” balance sheets that are not open to the public, and 3- The white market’s economy, as the main source of all economic indicators. Everything is Grey in Egypt.
- Hash is the most popular drug in Egypt, followed by weed (which is usually cheap with a low level of quality), followed by several types of chemical pills.Hash might be more popular than football itself.
- There are “Playstation Shops” in Egypt, in which you can rent a Playstation and pay based on an hourly rate. I usually win :)
- Playstation shops are the second most popular hangout places for Egyptian youth, after Coffee Shops… Both businesses are usually unregistered, illegal, and a part of the black market’s economy. Lovely places, true components of modern Egypt’s culture.
- “Blaming the victim” is among the most common syndromes in the Egyptian society. Why shall we bother ourselves with your problem when we can simply blame you for it? Stockholm Syndrome is also popular, that's why the current president Sisi is more popular than the former president Morsy, and his military dictatorship was more appealing than Morsy's Islamic dictatorship post the Egyptian revolution of 2011.
- Citizens of Egypt can’t possibly be grouped under the umbrella of a single culture. With relatively huge distances, there are significant differences among Egyptian sub-cultures. For instance, people of Sinai (the huge piece of land next to the Gaza Strip) usually referred to as “Arabs of Sinai” have their own cultural aspects that are closest to the lifestyle of “Arabs” residing in the desert a thousand years ago. When the people of Nubia who reside in the south of Egypt, and north of Sudan have their own unique cultural heritage in terms of traditions, norms, values, clothing, songs, art… and even their own unwritten language, descending from an ancient Nubian state that used to be a rival of the pharaohs. Unlike Nubians, the Pharaohs have vanished with almost all of their cultural aspects; however, a few of their traditions have survived along with their pyramids, sphinx, temples and statues. We rarely care for citizens of Sinai, Nubia, Upper Egypt…
- People usually live with their parents until they die, or get married. Dislike.
- Hitting 30 years as a Bachelor/Bachelorette is usually considered “Social Suicide”, as members of your age group build their own Friends/Family Units’-mix that you can rarely interact with or relate to. Might be a common problem among other societies.
- For female members of the society, curfews may be applied by their parents or husbands, regardless of their age. Otherwise she might be sexually harassed, as if she doesn’t get that in the morning.
- Unlike other cultures, you don’t get to be in a relationship because you “Like” your partner, you have to love that partner first, or just lie about it. This might have a positive influence, or does it?
- Public display of affection is penalized by both the laws and members of the society, but anything can be done privately. Fake Conservatism.
- “No sex before marriage” is a traditional custom, reinforced by religious values; however, the rule is being broken by an increased number of individuals over the years. Anything in private.
- Marriage costs a fortune relative to your own social class, and that of the person you’d be marrying (usually the same as yours). It’s ridiculous.
- In Egypt, marriage is not only a relationship between a couple of individuals, their whole families get to “marry” each other. Too complicated.
- Parents on both sides of the marriage shall assess the reputation of the other family, their descent, social class, average income, education… before agreeing to a marriage. Life should be easier.
- An official proposal usually involves a potential groom and his parents paying a potential bride’s parents visit at home. It’s okay :)
- “Saloon Marriages” refers to the process in which the older relatives or parents of a potential bride/groom start searching for potential life partners, getting the potential couple(s) introduced whenever applicable, and ending up with a marriage. If the Bride and Groom are fine with it, then I’m fine with it :)
- “Cousins’ marriages” is a traditionally popular custom in Egypt, but has been losing its popularity in the past few decades. A person marrying the daughter of his father’s brother was the most common case, to maintain the family’s name, legacy, assets… and some other reasons. Thank God it’s losing popularity.
- Another norm with a decreasing popularity over the past few decades, involves a huge age difference between a husband and a wife. It was generally accepted for a man to marry a woman 10-20 years younger than him. Again, if they’re fine with it, it’s none of my business :)
Such judgments may push individuals to make stupid decisions.
Nationalism is a deadly important value. “Loving the sand of your nation” is a popular virtue in Egypt, it’s commonly believed that you can’t really love your country unless you love and support its army, and you don’t truly love the army, unless you support its leaders.
Often coupled with National Exceptionalism, for instance, many Egyptians think that Egyptian kids are the world's smartest children. It's also a popular saying that Egypt is the mother of the world.
In Egypt, the core values of management are cross promoted among households, educational institutions, workplaces, and within the broader scope of the nation itself. These links have been established over centuries of social interactions, enabling the powerful side(s) to gain more influence over the powerless.
Related Books:
- People usually live with their parents until they die, or get married. Dislike.
- Hitting 30 years as a Bachelor/Bachelorette is usually considered “Social Suicide”, as members of your age group build their own Friends/Family Units’-mix that you can rarely interact with or relate to. Might be a common problem among other societies.
- For female members of the society, curfews may be applied by their parents or husbands, regardless of their age. Otherwise she might be sexually harassed, as if she doesn’t get that in the morning.
- Unlike other cultures, you don’t get to be in a relationship because you “Like” your partner, you have to love that partner first, or just lie about it. This might have a positive influence, or does it?
- Public display of affection is penalized by both the laws and members of the society, but anything can be done privately. Fake Conservatism.
- “No sex before marriage” is a traditional custom, reinforced by religious values; however, the rule is being broken by an increased number of individuals over the years. Anything in private.
- Marriage costs a fortune relative to your own social class, and that of the person you’d be marrying (usually the same as yours). It’s ridiculous.
- In Egypt, marriage is not only a relationship between a couple of individuals, their whole families get to “marry” each other. Too complicated.
- Parents on both sides of the marriage shall assess the reputation of the other family, their descent, social class, average income, education… before agreeing to a marriage. Life should be easier.
- An official proposal usually involves a potential groom and his parents paying a potential bride’s parents visit at home. It’s okay :)
- “Saloon Marriages” refers to the process in which the older relatives or parents of a potential bride/groom start searching for potential life partners, getting the potential couple(s) introduced whenever applicable, and ending up with a marriage. If the Bride and Groom are fine with it, then I’m fine with it :)
- “Cousins’ marriages” is a traditionally popular custom in Egypt, but has been losing its popularity in the past few decades. A person marrying the daughter of his father’s brother was the most common case, to maintain the family’s name, legacy, assets… and some other reasons. Thank God it’s losing popularity.
- Another norm with a decreasing popularity over the past few decades, involves a huge age difference between a husband and a wife. It was generally accepted for a man to marry a woman 10-20 years younger than him. Again, if they’re fine with it, it’s none of my business :)
In Egypt, the core values of management are cross promoted among households, educational institutions, workplaces, and within the broader scope of the nation itself. These links have been established over centuries of social interactions, enabling the powerful side(s) to gain more influence over the powerless.
Related Books:
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